The United Nations climate conference published a draft agreement on Monday that stopped short of calling on countries to phase out their use of fossil fuels, sparking criticism from environmentalists.
The long-awaited draft text is the first global stocktake put forth under the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change since the Paris Agreement in 2015.
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It calls for governments to proceed with a “just” and “orderly” reduction in the use and production of fossil fuels but stops short of calling outright for their phaseout, as sought by environmentalists.
It also called for “rapidly phasing down” the use of “unabated coal” — that is, coal power that does not include technology to capture carbon emissions. The text also endorses tripling renewable energy growth by 2030 and ramping up carbon capture technologies and technologies to help reduce emissions from the atmosphere.
COP28 president and UAE oil executive Sultan Ahmed al Jaber praised the latest draft as a “huge step forward.”
“The COP28 Presidency has been clear from the beginning about our ambitions. This text reflects those ambitions and is a huge step forward,” he said at a press conference.
“Now it is in the hands of the parties, who we trust to do what is best for humanity and the planet.”
Government delegates will meet Monday evening to vote on the new text. But leaders appeared at odds over the draft in the hours following its release, including leaders from smaller nations and those considered most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The Alliance of Small Islands, which represents 39 countries, described the draft agreement as “completely insufficient,” arguing in a press conference that the proposed COP28 text puts “profit over people.”
“We will not sign our death certificate,” Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, Samoa’s natural resources minister, said.
Others, including former U.S. leaders and climate summit leaders, argued that the text will be effectively toothless without the “phase out” language for fossil fuels.
“It is difficult to see how this text will help to achieve the deep and rapid cut in emissions we need by 2030 to keep 1.5c alive,” Alok Sharma, who presided over the COP26 summit in Glasgow, said of the draft text.
It is difficult to see how this text will help to achieve the deep and rapid cut in emissions we need by 2030 to keep 1.5c alive
With so many countries backing clear language on fossil-fuel-phase-out, who does this text actually serve?#COP28 https://t.co/bmNY78AmmT
— Sir Alok Sharma (@AlokSharma_RDG) December 11, 2023
“With so many countries backing clear language on fossil-fuel-phase-out, who does this text actually serve?” he said.
Former Vice President Al Gore panned the draft agreement as an “obsequious” text that reads “as if OPEC dictated it word for word.”
COP28 “is now on the verge of complete failure,” Gore said Monday.
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Leaders will have until the end of the summit Tuesday to finalize the language.
